It’s as violence grows within Israel between Jewish and Arab mobs
A far-right crowd were caught on live TV pulling man out if his car and beating him because they thought he was an Arab.
Airstrikes and rocket fire continue between Israel and Gaza, but the violence and tension is now breaking out within Israel itself. There are reports throughout the country of clashes between Jewish and Arabian mobs.
The footage was caught in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night, and shows a group of far-right Israelis dragging a man out of his car and beating him until he lay motionless and bloodied on the ground.
The Guardian reports that the crowd justified the attack by saying that the man was an Arab who had tried to ram the far-right nationalists. However footage shows the motorist trying to avoid the demonstration.
Footage of the attack was broadcast live on television.
Tel Aviv’s Ichilov hospital said in a statement: “The victim of the lynching is seriously injured but stable.”
The incident took place in Bat Yam, a suburb of Tel Aviv. In the same area, a group of black-clad Israelis smashed the windows of an Arab-owned ice cream shop and ultranationalists could be seen chanting “Death to Arabs!” on live television during a standoff with border police.
On Wednesday the mayor of Lod, a city which has both Jewish and Arab communities, warned that “civil war” was breaking out.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on both Jews and Arabs to stop the attacks on each other, saying “It doesn’t matter to me that your blood is boiling. You can’t take the law in your hands.”
Israel’s chief rabbi, Yitzhak Yossef, has also called for an end to attacks by Jews.
“Innocent citizens are being attacked by terrorist organisations, the heart is heavy and the images difficult, but we cannot allow ourselves to be drawn into provocations and aggressions,” he said.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said that rioters in the cities of Lod and Acre “do not represent Israeli Arabs, the rioters in Bat Yam… do not represent Israeli Jews, violence will not dictate our lives.”
